


it's just home

by screamlet



Category: Boy Meets World, Girl Meets World
Genre: Bears, Domestic Fluff, Female Characters, Female Friendship, Gen, Kid Fic, Multi, POV Female Character, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-01
Updated: 2014-06-01
Packaged: 2018-02-03 00:43:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1724900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/screamlet/pseuds/screamlet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff"><p>+ for zlot and waldorph who are always all, WHY DON'T YOU WRITE BOY MEETS WORLD and then oops it happened.<br/>+ The age difference between Riley and her younger brother is a rough guestimate based on the pilot.<br/>+ Shawn as a photojournalist is from the 10,000 interviews I've read about <i>Girl Meets World</i> re: the Once and Future Rider Strong Cameo.<br/>+ <a href="http://www.lanceandeskimo.com/bmw/index.php?episode=8">Paramus, New Jersey</a>, to be exact. It was definitely <a href="http://boymeetsworldgifs.tumblr.com/post/26850832141">cake</a>.<br/>+ <a href="http://www.lanceandeskimo.com/bmw/index.php?episode=102">Bears</a> did keep finding them (in at least two episodes).<br/>+ <a href="http://31.media.tumblr.com/f59b2acc9d4976d889fd28e88d2311fe/tumblr_mtgesoFM9y1s5x2u0o1_1280.jpg">IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN WOLVES.</a></p><p>+ See also: <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/2772884"><b>it's family time</b></a></p></blockquote>





	it's just home

Maya came into their lives a month after Auggie, just as Cory and Topanga established their maternity leave routine:

1\. Riley goes to the all-day kindergarten across the street from Cory’s school;

2\. Cory picks up Riley after school;

3\. Cory and Riley go home; 

4\. Cory makes dinner while Topanga goes over Riley’s worksheets and homework, baby Auggie quiet as they buzz around him, a welcome change from Topanga dictating status reports on her cases all afternoon. 

One day, Cory arrived at Riley’s school to find Riley, her teacher Ms. Sajadieh, and a blonde girl Riley’s age, sitting on the steps outside. Ms. Sajadieh had a tablet and was reading with not-Riley as Riley stood up and threw her arms around Cory.

“So what’s with the welcoming committee here?”

“We’re waiting for Maya’s mom,” Riley said. “Ms. Sajadieh won’t leave until she comes to pick her up and Maya said her mom was working and she’s probably late because of the trains and I said we could take her home but Ms. Sajadieh said she couldn’t do that so could we wait for Maya’s mom, please?”

Cory was about to say something, but Riley interrupted.

“WE CAN’T JUST LEAVE HER HERE,” Riley screamed. 

“I SAID IT WAS OKAY,” yelled Maya. “I’M FINE ON MY OWN, I DON’T NEED YOU.”

“Wow,” Cory said. “This is familiar.”

“Please tell Mom we’re only a little late, okay, please, it’ll be fine, Maya’s mom is running late, too, it won’t be that long, please, okay,” Riley said.

“Riley,” Ms. Sajadieh said. “You have a baby brother at home now. You and your dad need to help out your mom. I’ll stay with Maya and you can see her tomorrow.”

“THIS ISN’T FAIR,” Riley screamed. “MAYA NEEDS TO GO HOME, TOO.”

“Riley, school voice,” Cory warned her. “I’ll let Mom know we’re running late, okay? But we’re still at school, so act like it.” He sat down on the steps next to Ms. Sajadieh and Riley threw her arms around his neck. “Why don’t you review what you did today while I call Mom?”

Topanga said okay, asking Cory to let her know if he ran late enough that she would have to start dinner. Ms. Sajadieh switched to a math game on her tablet and had Riley and Maya reviewing skip-counting and yelling out the answers. Cory graded his class’s quizzes and watched Riley and Maya yell over each other to get the right answer first.

Katy, Maya’s mother, arrived and Cory spoke to her before they all went their separate ways: she and Maya would join them all for dinner this week so she could see that neither Cory nor Topanga were murderers, and then Maya could hang out at their house after school with Riley until Katy picked her up. 

Dinner never happened, but the next day Cory brought home Maya anyway. 

“Mom said you’re weird but not too weird, so we can probably trust you,” Maya said as she held Riley’s hand on the subway. “She says she knows a good man when she sees one, and you’re probably close enough.”

Cory nodded and smiled—he knew a compliment when he heard one.

*

Maya established herself in the Matthews’ house. She even had a favorite glass and her own spot at the dining table. A month into their arrangement, the three of them came home after school and Cory fell face-first over a duffel bag that was almost as tall as Riley. 

“SHAWN,” Riley screamed. (They had tried a _no yelling_ rule for about five minutes when they first brought Auggie home, but it hadn’t worked for anyone.) 

“SHAWNIE,” Cory yelled. “Here’s his _bag_ bag, there’s his camera bag, there’s his jacket, there’s his glass, but WHERE—”

And then Shawn appeared at the bedroom door, wearing the baby sling and Auggie across his chest. “He just got to sleep, you know how long it—”

Riley threw herself on the floor and wrapped her arms around his ankles as Shawn put a hand out and grabbed onto the door frame. “Hold on hold on hold on hold on _Shawn_ ,” Cory muttered as he followed Riley with quicker, quieter steps and took hold of Shawn from behind, fitting one arm into an affectionate chokehold above Auggie and his other arm wrapped across Shawn’s hips below Auggie. “Did you get here by boat? There’s been a new Matthews in the world for _two months_ and this is the first time you’re holding him?”

“Shawn did you bring me stuff,” Riley demanded. “Shawn come on Shawn did you bring me stuff did you bring me a thing did you take any pictures for me did you bring me a pony you said if we moved to a bigger apartment you’d bring me a pony and we got roof access now so we can totally have a pony Shawn.”

Shawn looked down at the six-year-old at his feet and said, “Oh my god, she’s morphing into you. I’ve never seen the Cory catch that fast. Quick, kid, how do you say the word _underpants_?”

“That’s cheating,” Cory said, still a barnacle attached to Shawn’s back. “How else does anyone—”

Riley suddenly stood up, quickly enough to make Shawn reach for the door frame again to keep his balance. Maya was still standing at the door, a little paralyzed, a lot confused.

“Maya this is Shawn,” Riley said quickly. “Shawn, this is my friend Maya. She’s my best friend.”

“Good to meet you, Maya,” Shawn said, the only one using an indoor voice. “I’d shake your hand but I’m covered in Matthews.”

“That’s okay,” Maya said. “I get it. They’re super contagious. Um, Mr. Matthews, should I go? Since you have guests? We didn’t—I don’t want to be in the way or anything.”

“Please, guest, _pffffffffffffffffft_ ,” Cory said. “Shawn’s family. It’s like any other day, girls. Sit down at the table and get started on that homework.” He pried himself off Shawn’s back and stepped around to look at him face-to-face. The two of them, Cory and Shawn, were quiet for a long moment, Cory’s hands firm on Shawn’s shoulders, both grinning without speaking. “You can help them out with that, right? Get started on that long division, quadratic equations, calculus, all the stuff kindergarten kids need to know?”

“My specialty’s fake it ‘til you make it,” Shawn said. “They’re not too young for that, right?”

“I’ll make dinner,” Cory said. “What do you want? I’ll make anything. I’ll order anything. I’ll go to New Jersey and get that cake you like.”

“Check the fridge,” Shawn said. “Already beat you to it.”

“ _Stop_. Seriously, what do you want to eat? Did you eat already? When’s the last time you ate? You’re hungry again. I’ll make everything we have, it’s fine, it’s no trouble, just sit down and be here.”

The girls had spread their books out on the dining table, but Riley was showing Maya around the living room. Maya had been coming to the Matthews’ place for weeks now, and she and Riley had always come in and made a beeline for either Riley’s room or the dining table. Now Riley pulled Maya by the hand around the room at the framed pictures that covered almost every inch of their living room. 

“Shawn’s a photographer,” Riley said. “He goes all around the world and does all sorts of cool stuff and sometimes he writes about it but mostly he takes pictures. He’s been in every magazine. Like, every one. Every magazine ever.”

“Even a few I made up,” Shawn said.

“He brings me really cool stuff sometimes,” Riley added. She turned around and asked, “Hey, how about that pony?”

“Hey, since when do we say _hey_ to your elders?” Cory asked. “Is Shawn someone you _hey_? Would you hey to Grandpa or Grandma?”

“Grandpa wants me to call him Gramps because he’s the cool Gramps and Shawn’s Shawn and he's the cool one so I can—”

“Don’t let Uncle Eric hear that.”

“It’s true,” Shawn said. He looked at Maya very seriously and said, “When you meet Uncle Eric, remember: _he_ ’s the cool one.”

“Uncle Eric is cool… in his own way…” Riley said. “Shawn was in TIME.”

“In time for what?”

“TIME _magazine_ ,” Riley said. “It’s a thing.”

“I was in a thing,” Shawn said, leaning backwards closer to Cory who was, actually, still in the fridge looking for something to make for dinner. 

“Your dad really likes him,” Maya said. Riley dragged her to the family photo corner. Maya had glanced at them before, all these framed pictures of big families laughing like the black and white photos in picture frames at Duane Reade, the ones you took out before you put in your real pictures. 

Riley reached into the mess of frames, so many of them that some were lying down waiting for their turn to be rotated to the front. Maya watched as she flipped through them and found the one she was looking for, the one that got to stand up front now, right behind Topanga and Riley and baby Auggie at the hospital. There were three kids who could have been Riley’s parents a million years ago. Maya laughed at Mrs. Matthews with her huge hair and the weird dress she probably wouldn’t be caught dead in these days. Mrs. Matthews was in the middle of the picture with a boy on either side: Mr. Matthews on her right in a plaid shirt down to his knees and totally crazy hair, and Shawn on her left. Smiling, both arms around Mrs. Matthews’s waist, both hands clutching at Mr. Matthews’s shirt, all his ugly old fashioned straight hair falling into his face while he laughed at the camera.

“They’re _best friends_ ,” Riley said, sounding like Ms. Sajadieh when standing in front of the room and laying down rules on their class like _no fighting, Maya_. 

“Aw, would you get a look at those goobers,” Cory said from across the room. “Shawn, get a picture of them. Shawn, get it, quick, before they grow up right in front of us.”

“Do I have to put on a dumb dress like for school pictures?” Riley asked. 

Shawn, Auggie still in the sling across his chest, dug out his camera and made them stand in front of the closed front door, the only place not covered in knickknacks and pictures. “No dresses, I promise,” Shawn said as the camera whirred and clicked. “Stay just the way you are.”

“ _At laaaaaaaaaast_ ,” Cory sang at the kitchen sink. “ _Our Shawn is comin’ hooooooome. And we’re making his favorite autumn steeeeeeew_.”

Shawn looked at Riley and Maya over the camera and raised his eyebrows. “What are we gonna do about that guy, huh?”

“You tell us, _we’re_ the ones stuck with him,” Riley said.

“We’re all stuck with him,” Shawn said. “You wouldn’t want it any other way.”

Shawn was gone two weeks later; Maya walked into Riley’s house on Wednesday to Shawn feeding Auggie on the couch while Topanga was on her computer talking a million miles a minute, and on Thursday it was just Topanga and Auggie and her assistant from the law office.

“Shawn left?” Maya asked. “I was starting to like him.”

“Yeah,” Riley said as she unpacked her books. “We all had breakfast together.”

“He ever get you that pony?”

“ _No_ ,” Riley sighed. “Mom and Shawn said they checked the lease and even with the roof access we can’t have a pony. Blah blah blah, _health code violation_ , blah blah blah, _the mayor_.”

“Actually,” Topanga said, interrupting her assistant, “You might want to check your dresser. I’m not saying Shawn left you anything, but you should check it, maybe?”

The girls ran to Riley’s room and there it was: a wooden, delicately painted horse with I.O.U. written on the side. 

“MOM WHAT’S I.O.U. MEAN—oh I get it now,” Riley said as she clutched the horse like it was life itself. 

Maya stepped next to Riley as Riley reached for another figure on the dresser. “I think this is for you,” Riley said.

“Uh, you don’t know that. It's probably not. Why would...” Maya said.

It was also wood, a wooden dolphin, totally weird and not-smooth the way dolphins were supposed to look, and it had a wood base of blue-and-purple water. MAYA was painted in the waves.

“I guess if you write to him or talk to him and say thank you, maybe you could tell him I say thank you, too,” Maya said as she held it in her hands. She almost wanted to ask Riley to keep it in her room, next to the I.O.U. horse because this thing would get broken in her backpack or stolen on the subway or her mom would break it, and it looked breakable, it was wood, did they even have wooden _anything_ in their apartment? Probably not, because wood broke so easily. 

Riley put her horse in a place of honor, part of a menagerie on the corner shelf that Riley would go to all the time when they were hanging out in her room. When they talked, Riley would grab an animal off the shelf and walk around with it in her hand: her thinking pets. She put the horse off to the side and Maya asked,

“Can I put my dolphin there, too? So it—I don’t want it to get lost on the subway. There’s so many weirdos, you know, and I need both fists out so I can get a seat and I can’t do that with this dolphin in one hand.”

“Yeah of course,” Riley said. Maya the dolphin was next to the horse and Riley threw her arm around Maya’s shoulders. “Now they’re friends and they can talk to each other whenever they want, and if you want to take her home just take her, okay?”

“Okay,” Maya said, as Mr. Matthews called them back to the dining table.

*

A few days before Easter, Riley and Maya got out of school and Riley shrieked when she saw Shawn and his leather jacket and his not-really-beard and his spiky hair, all of Shawn, leaning against her dad, the two of them laughing and Cory gesturing like always.

“Look at YOU,” Shawn said, picking up Riley easily. “Were you this tall back in October? You weren’t, were you? You’re like a foot taller now. When you get home, you’ve gotta stand at the post and let Topanga mark how much you’ve grown.” 

Maya kept her distance, a few steps behind, until Shawn put Riley down again and waved at Maya. “Same goes for you. You seem taller, too.”

“And cooler, way cooler,” Maya replied.

“Oh yeah, goes without saying, please,” Shawn said.

“Thanks for the dolphin,” Maya said. “It was really nice.”

“You’re welcome,” Shawn said.

“She’s hanging out next to the IOU horse,” Maya said. “They go on adventures sometimes. They can go by land _or_  by sea.”

“I’m staying for a few days so next time I see you, tell me about their adventures, okay?” Shawn said. 

“Hey, guess what, girls,” Cory said. “We’re taking a _cab_ today.”

“A cab why a cab where are we going are we going home is Mom coming?” Riley asked.

“Actually, Shawn and I have plans tonight,” Cory said as they left the schoolyard and walked towards the avenue. “So we’ll take a cab to the apartment and drop you off.”

“Where are you going?” Maya asked. “Is it somewhere fun? Is it somewhere cool? Are you going on an adventure?”

Cory and Shawn _hmmmm_ ’d for a long moment before Shawn said, “Guy stuff.” Riley nodded along, the wisdom handed down and the wisdom was _guy stuff_.

“Great,” Riley said. “Guy stuff. And we’ll be at home and we’ll have GIRL STUFF.”

“It’s gonna be so much more fun,” Maya said.

“Even with Auggie there,” Riley added, picking up on Maya’s riff. “He’s cool enough to be one of the girls. And maybe Maya can sleep over, too! It’s a long weekend, Dad, can she?”

“Well, I won’t be there to help out,” Cory said. “Shawn and I are staying someplace else tonight, so check with Mom if she’s up for the two of you having a sleepover.”

“You’re not coming home?” Maya asked. She caught herself and shrugged her shoulders, hoping Mr. Matthews didn’t hear that she had called their place _home_.

“It’s okay,” Riley said as she pat Maya’s arm. “Guy stuff means Dad and Shawn come back tomorrow for lunch. And sometimes we go somewhere fun after lunch. Do you and your mom have plans tomorrow? If we go somewhere special tomorrow, we can come get you! My mom can text your mom or call or something—”

“One day at a time, Riley," Cory said as Shawn waved down a cab for them.

*

For Maya, the Matthews’s apartment felt like home, but for Shawn it really was. By the front door, there were five mail baskets: junk, Cory, Topanga, Mr. and Mrs. Cory and Topanga Matthews, and Shawn Hunter. 

“He travels a lot,” Riley said as she sorted the mail one afternoon. “So Mom said it makes sense for him to list our place as home.” She held up an envelope to the light and said, “Yessss, a check. Dad can deposit that for him tomorrow.”

“It’s just me and my mom,” Maya said as she snooped through the Matthews’s junk mail. “I usually put everything on the kitchen table and my mom sorts it out at the end of the month. These baskets are a good idea, though.”

“They are! Ooh, another check. Once Shawn was in a place where they didn’t take money so he had to like, work and trade stuff to get a place to stay and food to eat. Isn’t that crazy? Like, a place without money. He got good pictures from there, I think.”

“So he had money but they didn’t take it?” Maya asked. 

Riley thought about it for a minute. “Yeah, I guess so. I mean, other countries have different kinds of money so maybe this place didn’t have any.” Maya nodded in agreement and Riley grabbed everything out of Shawn’s basket; she was pulling the check envelopes out of the stack and putting them on top. “I don’t know where Shawn’s taking pictures right now but it’s probably a place with money, so Dad will take these to the bank and Shawn’ll have money tomorrow. He once sent me a package with all these McDonald’s napkins from around the world.”

“Ewwwww.”

“They were clean!”

“ _Ewwwwww_.”

"Now you're just saying ewww just to saw ewww."

" _Ewwwwwwwwwwww_  why would I do that?"

*

Shawn stayed with Riley and her family every Thanksgiving, every Christmas, and a few other times during the year. Riley and Auggie were the only ones surprised by his visits; Maya was careful and by this point she could read Riley’s parents well enough to see the hints that a Shawn visit was imminent.

She never told Riley, though; Riley loved the surprise too much. 

Of course, Shawn showed up one random day and they were all taken really, _really_ by surprise.

Maya stayed for dinner, like she did most nights, and she was the one who asked:

“So where were you?” 

“Where was I? What, before New York?” Shawn asked.

“Yeah, before you got here,” Maya asked, because the adults were being boring and talking about work and school like Shawn hadn’t shown up out of nowhere.

“Maya’s mom got the magazine you were in,” Riley interrupted. “She was reading it at the salon while she got her hair done and said she liked the pictures and we told her that it was you and she thought it was so cool.”

“Yeah but where were you?” Maya asked again.

“I was at a wedding, actually,” Shawn said as he looked at Topanga, then Cory. “Award-winning photojournalist turned wedding photographer, it’s true.”

Cory tilted his head and asked, “Really? Who wanted you to photograph their wedding? You, the man who captured _TEARS OF YELLOWSTONE_?”

Topanga went for her glass of wine and _then_ Shawn said, “Angela.”

Even Auggie, who spent meals shrieking into his food and repeating key phrases from the dinner conversation, was quiet as he rubbed mashed potatoes into his own hair. 

Maya watched as Cory lowered his fork and borrowed Topanga’s glass of wine so he could take a long sip before he passed it back to her. 

“Well mazel freakin’ tov to her,” Cory said.

“Wasn’t really a wedding,” Shawn said. “More of a commitment ceremony at the mouth of the Amazon in Brazil.”

“And you were the photographer,” Cory said. 

“She said she wanted the best,” Shawn said.

“And you _went_?” Cory asked.

Shawn put his fork down, too, and said, “What was I supposed to do? Not go? I had to see it, Cory, you would have done the same if—”

“If what?” Cory asked.

“No, never mind, you wouldn’t have,” Shawn said. “This is the kind of shit that only happens to me, obviously.”

Topanga took Shawn’s hand in both of hers and asked in her lawyer voice: “Did you already invoice her? No, of course you didn’t. Leave it to me, Shawn. I’ll invoice the _hell_ out of her.”

“YEAH,” Cory said. “For reckless endangerment of Shawn’s heart.” He reached across the table and added his hands to the mess. “Was it a terrible wedding? Did piranhas go after the guests? Did you throw the groom into the ocean? Did a whale come up and eat them all?”

“Mazel freakin tov!” Auggie shouted. “Mazel mazel mazel mazel!”

Maya might have regret digging into Shawn’s life for a split second, but it was only a split second. She asked, “So who’s Angela? Was she _your_ Topanga?”

“Maya, please,” Shawn said as Cory poured himself a glass of wine. “There’s only one Topanga.”

“You should have married the first girl you kissed, Shawn,” Cory said. “Right in the sixth grade! Marry the first girl you kiss and that’s the end of it! All this dating and _will they won’t they_ , and running around Paris like a couple of crazy kids who like art and cemeteries—bah, who needs it. Marry the first person you kiss and that’s that.”

Topanga looked at the girls and said, “Don’t do that. He gets hysterical when someone toys with Shawn’s heart.”

“Umm, and you get fierce,” Maya said. “It’s really cool.”

Topanga looked proud for a moment, then said, “Don’t tell your mom.”

“I mean, it’s nice to know, finally,” Shawn said across the table to Cory. “Put a period on it. It’s final. No more _I love you but I’m not sure_ or _I want to focus on my art_ or—whatever.”

“ _You_ focus on _your_ art,” Topanga said. “I’ll take care of her. Finish eating, Shawn, and then I need all your receipts and all the details. You should have flown business class. Dammit. Next time someone wants to engage your talent out of spite, _call me_.” She smiled to herself with a wild look in her eyes. “Oh, we’ll make them pay.”

“You’re TOO NICE to people,” Cory said to Shawn. “You can’t be nice to anyone. Don’t trust anyone but your family, ever.” Cory nodded like he had made an important decision and said, “Then you come back to us because we love you.”

“I agree with that last part,” Topanga said, again, more to Shawn and Riley and Maya than to Cory. “Nothing before it, though, like actually nothing before that last sentence. Don't listen to that part.”

“You should tell Angela a whale ate your camera,” Riley said.

“You guys and the whales,” Shawn replied. 

“I want a whale to take me to the Amazon so we can wreck that honeymoon!” Cory hit his hands on the table and said, “KIDS! The Matthews are going to the Amazon!”

“We have a math test tomorrow,” Riley said.

“Oh. Well.” Cory sighed. “That always works on TV.”

*

Shawn was in town again and he and Cory were doing Guy Stuff, so Topanga got a babysitter for Auggie on Saturday morning and took the girls to their first PG-13 movie, the kind of romantic comedy that Riley loved and Maya hated. 

It was a little weird, but Maya sat with Riley’s mom in the seats behind and to the right of Riley. It was a matinee and their theater was almost empty; everyone else was at the new Pixar movie blasting in the theater next to them. Topanga had another _don’t tell your mother_ moment as the two of them shared a bucket of popcorn with extra fake butter. It was nice, the way Mrs. Matthews thought that Maya ate totally healthy when she wasn’t with them and this was some kind of terrible thing that would get Maya banned from their house. 

They weren’t sitting with Riley, Maya realized, because Topanga liked making comments at these movies, too. Riley turned around when they laughed too much and shushed them. She finally moved to a seat two rows ahead of them and that made them laugh even more.

“It’s dumb the way everyone gets married at the end of these movies,” Maya said. “This kid in our class, his parents are getting divorced, right? He’s like the second kid this year whose parents are splitting up. In my family, it’s always been me and my mom. That’s way more people I know who aren’t married than are. You guys are the only married people I know.”

“You’re so young to learn that,” Topanga sighed. “I didn’t, not until I was… god, I was 19.”

“What happened?”

The music swelled in the movie and Riley turned around to smile at them, so happy that here, finally, after 90 minutes, these characters found their happily ever after. Topanga gave Riley a thumbs up and then smiled at Maya. 

“My parents got divorced,” she said, plain as anything. “It took me a while to—to deal with that.”

“You guys seem okay,” Maya said.

“You have to find people who let you be who you have to be,” Topanga said. “Like these people? This guy turning his whole life around for her? And how she’s saying, _oh let me be so much nicer and then everyone will love me_! That’s not how it works. You can’t change people.”

They watched quietly and Riley turned around at least twice more to mouth _I LOVE THIS MOVIE_ at them, miming a faint into her seat and disappearing from sight. 

“It’s good that Riley found you,” Topanga said. “You’re like Shawn to Cory. You keep her grounded.”

“And she’s…” 

But Maya had nothing to finish that sentence with, didn’t have the word for everything Riley was, or even was _to her_. Riley’s mom didn’t mind, though, and touched her arm gently like she knew. 

“Did you guys LOVE IT,” Riley asked as she rushed back to where her mom and Maya were sitting. “Did you see the twist at the end like did you think it was going to be _such a twist_!”

“They still ended up together,” Maya said. “What’s the twist there?”

“No my god, Maya, that’s not the twist, I mean the twist before when it turned out that he quit his job for her because he wasn’t going to write that article the way they wanted and then she gets him an even better one where he can do whatever he wants—”

“That seems unrealistic,” Maya said.

“MOM,” Riley said. “What’s that word, it’s a thing, when it’s not one thing but it’s another.”

“A metaphor?” Topanga asked.

“RIGHT.”

“It’s not a metaphor, it’s a poorly considered professional decision,” Topanga said. 

“MOM.”

“Do you want to play arcade games before we meet Dad and Shawn for lunch? Or do you want more savvy business advice from a hip professional lady like me?” Topanga asked.

“Arcade, PLEASE,” Riley said. She left and called back at them, “Dad’s gonna LOVE this movie and I bet Shawn will, too.”

“Oh, there’s the catch,” Topanga said as she and Maya left their seats to follow Riley. “Sometimes you meet someone who you know you’ll spend the rest of your life with, and he has a best friend who you love just as much, and the two of them can watch sappy movies together while you meet your friends for drinks or read a book or do anything you want, really, and life is very good.”

Maya nodded, but then asked, “Wait, what?”

*

Sometimes in class, instead of paying attention, Maya would daydream about being pulled out of school early. 

Sometimes it was her mom signing her out so they could go have a fancy lunch and get haircuts and go shopping—things that would never happen, basically. 

Sometimes it was a music producer, a director, even an agent or something, coming into their class and yelling, _YOU, YES, YOU! MAYA HART! COME WITH US! YOU’RE GONNA BE A STAR_! And then glitter would fall from the ceiling and she and Riley would be carried out on a wave of perfection into the future where everything was beautiful and easy and word problems about trains weren’t a thing. 

Then the door to their classroom opened and it was Mrs. Matthews. The dream was coming true, Maya thought, and she couldn’t help but beam as Riley’s mom walked into their classroom like she owned it and a million others like it, and whispered to their teacher.

Even better: their teacher, Ms. Hanson, said, “Riley, gather your things, you’re being signed out.”

Ms. Hanson looked at her, Maya, but she looked worried—maybe Riley wasn’t living the dream. 

“Call me tonight,” Maya whispered. 

“Come by after school,” Riley whispered back.

“Yes, come by after school,” Topanga said, because Riley couldn’t whisper if their lives depended on it.

They left but Maya’s day dragged on and on. Riley was her best friend and this was the most interesting thing that had happened to anyone in months, so their classmates spent all day asking her questions and passing her notes, asking why Riley left early. At the last bell, she bolted out of school and took the train up to Riley’s house. Riley answered the door and immediately threw her arms around Maya. 

Behind Riley: “Is it—hi Maya, hi,” Riley’s dad said as he carried Auggie around the apartment, bouncing him in his arms and talking to him. 

“Hey,” Maya said, Riley still choking her in that hug. “Is everything okay? Why did you leave early, Riley? I’ve got five bucks riding on—”

“Shawn got hurt,” Riley said. “Shooting something in _Canada_ , like in the _woods_. Mom said that he was hurt and she—she pulled me and Dad out of school and left on a plane there to bring him back.”

Maya tightened her arms around Riley and stared over her shoulder at her dad, who looked wrecked. Wrecked and lost, even as Auggie squirmed in his arms and tried to escape.

“I guess he’s not—he’s hurt, not...” Riley pulled away from Maya a little, but Maya gripped her arms. “Dad wanted to go but one of them had to stay with Auggie, and Dad—Mom said she’s better at this stuff than he is, so we’re here with Auggie, waiting.” Riley looked around at their apartment, its usual calm and order disturbed in a way that Maya couldn’t place. “So do you want to wait with us? Dad said we could get pizza if we were hungry. Soon? Maybe?”

“Let’s watch TV,” Maya said. “Mr. Matthews! Come watch TV with us!”

That was how Maya got Cory to let them watch MTV for the first time ever. The four of them watched until Maya looked around and saw she was the last one awake, Riley and her dad and Auggie having nodded off into fitful sleeps. Riley had fallen asleep with her head leaning against her dad’s arm, like how people nodded off on the subway and awkwardly fell against the person at their side.

In the kitchen, the phone rang and the others were too out of it to hear. She ran and picked up, T MATTHEWS comforting on the caller ID.

“Oh good, Maya, you’re there,” she said. “What happened to Cory and Riley?”

“Sorry, they fell asleep watching TV. It was something educational—like five episodes of Reading Rainbow. Don’t take my word for it.”

“I totally believe you, Maya,” Topanga said with a tone that said she totally didn’t. “Could you wake Cory up so I can talk to him? _Calmly_. He’ll probably flail first and ask questions later.”

“Sure… is everything… are things okay?”

“Shawn’s hurt, but he’ll be okay. He’ll be staying with us for a while to recover.”

Maya took the flailing warning to heart and went around the back of the couch. She tapped Mr. Matthews on the shoulder and as Topanga warned, he yelled “SHAWNIE” and flew off the couch, waking Auggie and Riley up in the process. 

“Mr. Matthews,” Maya said as she held out the phone. “It’s—”

Cory took the phone and rushed with it to the kitchen. “Topanga tell me everything. Is he  _okay_ and—” 

Riley was awake now and kneeling on the couch, straining to hear everything her dad said. Maya kneeled next to her and Riley took her hand, holding it tight in her own. “Your mom said Shawn’s okay,” Maya said. “He’ll be staying with you guys for a while. That’s good, right? Except this place is small for three adults and the two of you.”

“It’s fine, we do it all the time,” Riley said, her grip relaxing on Maya’s hand. “Their bed fits three, but if Shawn needs the space to get away from them, there’s the inflatable mattress I can put in Auggie’s room. It’s fine. I can take care of that when Mom says she’s coming back with him.”

“AND DIDN’T I TELL YOU,” Cory yelled into the phone, “HEALTH INSURANCE IS THE GIFT THAT KEEPS GIVING. GUESS WHAT YOU’RE GETTING LAST CHRISTMAS AND EVERY CHRISTMAS, FOREVER. IT’S HEALTH INSURANCE. I’M THE GHOST OF FREAKIN’ HEALTH CARE AND I WILL HAUNT YOU UNTIL YOU DIE. No that’s—Shawn of course I’m not gonna kill you—”

“We should order pizza,” Maya said.

“Yeah, I’m hungry now, we can get pizza,” Riley said. “What do you want on it?”

Auggie had sprawled on the couch now that Cory had left and he hit Riley with the tablet she was looking for. “Riley, I want stuff on the pizza. I want butts.”

“You want a butt on your pizza?” Maya asked.

“Big pizza extra butts,” Auggie said.

“I can say you guys are weird, right?” Maya asked Riley. “Like really weird.”

“Butt pizza is weird even for us, Auggie,” Riley said as she pulled up an app. “Extra garlic knots? They kind of look like butts.”

“That’s what I said,” Auggie said. “Extra butts.”

Cory came back and said, “Shawn’s fine. Broken bones, broken ribs, broken ego because who told a kid from Philadelphia that he should go hiking? Huh? Haven’t I said that a thousand times? _Shawn, if you go hiking, a bear’s gonna eat you and then I’ll have to FIGHT A BEAR to save you_.” Cory looked at Riley and Maya and said, “I don’t know how to fight a bear! Do you know how many times it’s come up? _I still can’t fight a bear_.”

“You had bears in Philadelphia?” Maya asked.

“They found us,” Cory said. “ _Every. Time_.”

That weekend, Maya had permission to sleep over and Riley’s dad said it was all right because Shawn was coming home tomorrow and he would have said okay to anything. They woke up the next morning to Auggie’s cartoons in the living room and two big bags thrown in front of the door. Riley and Maya crept through the apartment and saw that the master bedroom was open, but silent. 

“You were right,” Maya said. “That bed does fit three. Good decision.”

Shawn looked rough, even while asleep, with his face scratched and bandaged in a few places, his right arm in a sling and his right foot in a cast. Riley’s parents were asleep on either side of him: Cory half-hugging him and Topanga with her phone in her hand, her hand on Shawn’s chest. Riley pulled Maya away and closed the door behind them.

“We should go get bagels for breakfast,” Riley said. “Mom left her purse in the kitchen and she won’t mind; we can go across the street. It’ll take a minute. And we should get coffee, they always want coffee.”

“Let’s do that. Should we bring Auggie?”

“I’m okay,” Auggie said. “I’ve already been here for HOURS. There’s SO MUCH TV.”

“We’ll be back with breakfast,” Riley said. “If they wake up, tell them we’re across the street.”

“We’ll be gone like five minutes,” Maya said.

“You heard Dad,” Riley said. “What if there’s bears?”

“We… go to another bagel shop?”

“It’s not the saaaaame,” Riley whined, but she did it anyway: she took the keys from the front door hook and the two of them left the apartment together.

**Author's Note:**

> \+ for zlot and waldorph who are always all, WHY DON'T YOU WRITE BOY MEETS WORLD and then oops it happened.  
> \+ The age difference between Riley and her younger brother is a rough guestimate based on the pilot.  
> \+ Shawn as a photojournalist is from the 10,000 interviews I've read about _Girl Meets World_ re: the Once and Future Rider Strong Cameo.  
>  \+ [Paramus, New Jersey](http://www.lanceandeskimo.com/bmw/index.php?episode=8), to be exact. It was definitely [cake](http://boymeetsworldgifs.tumblr.com/post/26850832141).  
> \+ [Bears](http://www.lanceandeskimo.com/bmw/index.php?episode=102) did keep finding them (in at least two episodes).  
> \+ [IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN WOLVES.](http://31.media.tumblr.com/f59b2acc9d4976d889fd28e88d2311fe/tumblr_mtgesoFM9y1s5x2u0o1_1280.jpg)
> 
> \+ See also: [**it's family time**](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2772884)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [it's family time](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2772884) by [screamlet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/screamlet/pseuds/screamlet)




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